Hello fellow Crabigator acolytes!
I want to share what I’ve been doing to motivate myself to learn Japanese / lose weight / stop laziness / improve my life overall. And also I want to ask around to make sure that I’m saying this one phrase correctly.
Backstory
I went to college to become a teacher, and I studied Japanese just for an elective. I ended up doing it for two semesters and I had an absolute blast. It was honestly my most fun class in college, but I had to stop to meet the tough demands that teaching would place on me. Now in 2018, I’m no longer a teacher and I’m actually going back to learning Japanese because of how much fun I had.
Recently, I was reading a book about business, and the author mentioned that he has a silver bracelet with a personal message on it that he refers to as his “wealth talisman”. “How cool,” I thought. “Perhaps I should get one of my own? Hmm… but what should it say…” And then the answer popped into my head: “kyou de wa nai”, which I think means “not today”.
How this motivates me
Our days are filled to the brim with opportunities to make decisions, and it’s up to us to make the right decision. Making decisions, though, is hard on our brains, and if we have to make too many decisions throughout the day we can become mentally exhausted and do bad things. So the best thing to do is to reduce the energy required to make good decisions. This is where my motivation comes in:
- “Can I take the day off?” “Not today.”
- “I want to be lazy.” “Kyou de wa nai.”
- “I want to overeat.” “No, not today.”
- “Some clutter is building on my desk, is that okay?” “Kyou de wa nai.”
This helps me because:
- it shortcuts my brain toward making the right decision (i.e. saying “no” to a bad idea), and
- it reminds me of my current major definite purpose, which is to learn Japanese.
Additionally, I have this written in the place where the most damage happens (the kitchen) and where I do my Japanese study (my bedroom). So far, it’s been incredibly helpful to me at both locations to overcome laziness et al…
Am I saying this correctly?
If you wanted to reply “not today” to a question that someone asks you, how would you say it in Japanese? I first thought it was 「今日ない。」, but after researching a bit I now think it’s 「今日ではない。」, but I’m still not sure because I’m still learning Japanese. Does anyone know the correct grammar on this?
Thank you! I hope my quick story helps those Crabigator acolytes who sometimes struggle with making good decisions in their day! If you have a similar motivation / decision making technique, I would love to hear it.